History:
Founded by Spanish in 1781; captured by the U.S. in 1846; incorporated as a
city on April 4, 1850; main growth began after the arrival of the Southern
Pacific Railroad in 1876 and the Santa Fe Railroad in 1885; new discoveries
enriched the oil industry, and Hollywood became the center of the motion
picture business in the 1920s; it became the second most populous city in the
U.S. in the mid-1980s

On Feb.
11, Celera Genomics and the International Human Genome Sequencing
Consortium both announced their independent publications of the sequence of the
human genome, the blueprint for human biology. Placing in order all the letters
that represent chemical bases of DNA, the two groups discovered that the human
genome seems to consist of only about 30,000 to 40,000 genes, compared to
previously projected numbers near 100,000. Genes are sections of DNA that are
used to make proteins that build, maintain, and operate cells. The low number
of genes in humans means that we are not genetically much more complex than
worms or fruit flies. In fact, the researchers found at least 113 genes that
seem to come directly from bacteria. What is different about human genes,
however, is that each can often create up to five times as many proteins as genes
in less complex organisms. Celera simultaneously announced their sequencing of
the mouse genome, which will aid in deciphering gene structures and functions
in humans.

On Feb. 12, scientists from Johns
Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, working for
NASA, successfully completed America's first ever controlled landing of a
spacecraft on a celestial body other than the moon. The Near Earth Asteroid
Rendezvous (NEAR) satellite (now called NEAR Shoemaker in honor of legendary
asteroid scientist, Gene Shoemaker), which had been orbiting the asteroid Eros
for almost exactly one year, was never designed to actually land on any
surface. Nonetheless, its descent onto Eros was so soft that the satellite
continued to transmit data from the asteroid's surface, revealing rocks and
space debris the size of a human hand. It was a needed success after recent
embarrassing and expensive failures in programs to Mars. (See http://near.jhuapl.edu/ for details

Is there life in space? The debate raged this month,
as researchers from NASA, California Institute of Technology, McGill
University and institutions in Spain and Germany announced compelling evidence
of extraterrestrial life in a Martian meteorite. Magnetite crystals embedded in
the meteorite ALH84001 are arranged in long chains, which the researchers say
could only have been formed by once-living organisms. Otherwise, they argue,
the crystals would have clumped together in magnetic lumps, instead of
stretching out in a line. The crystals' shape is also specific to organic
processes, at least on Earth. The researchers suggest that the meteorite at one
time encountered water or ice containing the dead bacteria that then washed
into its cracks. Other researchers disputed the conclusions.

Upcoming
Astronomical Events

March
flaunts one of the year's most interesting meteor-shower complexes: the
Virginids. This group of meteor showers, first recognized more than a century
ago, encompass at least a half dozen minor showers. There are indications that
these meteor streams may be linked to some near-Earth asteroids.

Venus puts on its best show in eight years, at its brightest
early this month. Watch for it after sunset, when the planet will still be up
for another 3 hours. Towards the end of the month, Venus will get dimmer as its
dark side turns toward us. But it is also nearing Earth, so it will be visible
as a long crescent.

On Mar.
8, the Space Shuttle Discovery is set to take off with the Expedition
Two crew, replacing the crew currently aboard the International Space
Station. The second crew will include Russian Commander Yury Usachev and
Flight Engineers, Jim Voss and Susan Helms, both American astronauts.

The Mir space station has orbited Earth more than 85,000
times, but in early March it will come crashing down in the South Pacific
Ocean, much of it probably burning up in the atmosphere.

Special
Feature: Spotlight on Women's HistoryBeth R. Ellis, Editor

Until fairly recently, most societies placed women in a subsidiary role as
men's spouses and helpmates, occupied mainly with child-rearing and
housekeeping. Women were, in some ways, second-class citizens in the
United States. By the late 20th century, however, women had made strides
in the U.S. political system, and held high state and federal offices and
Cabinet posts.

In the U.S., a milestone in women's rights took place August 18, 1920, when all
women won the right to vote with the ratification of the Nineteenth
Amendment. (The Wyoming territory had been first in the nation to give
its women the right to vote, in 1869.) This could never have been achieved
without the efforts of campaigners (most notably Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
Susan B. Anthony) for women's rights, dating back to the mid-nineteenth
century. Around the same time, women were also gaining access to higher
education and in some cases entering the professions. But working women
were still the exception rather than the rule at the turn of the century, and
most of those who did work had low-paying service or factory jobs.

Women's political progress has been very much a product of increased presence
in the workforce, particularly during and just after World War II, when the
number of women working outside the home increased by 60%. A prominent champion
of women during this period was first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. After the war,
however, many women found themselves relegated to lower-paying jobs, as
returning veterans swelled the workforce. Betty Friedan published her landmark
book "The Feminine Mystique" in 1963, and in 1966 joined with other
feminists to found the National Organization for Women (NOW) http://www.now.org/ . Their top concerns were
political and economic equality for women.

The significance of the
equal-rights movement may be underrepresented in schools and history books.
According to the National Women's History Project (NWHP) http://www.nwhp.org/ , only 3% of
educational materials focus on the contributions of women to U.S. history, and
studies show that most people cannot identify the leaders of the women's
movement and their achievements. The NWHP was founded in 1980 to
"make history accurate by continuing to recognize and celebrate women's
authentic contributions." In 1987 it successfully lobbied Congress
to designate March as National Women's History Month. The theme for 2001
is "Celebrating Women of Courage and Vision." That is also the purpose
of the National Women's Hall of Fame http://www.greatwomen.org/,
located in Seneca Falls, NY, site of the first women's rights convention, in
1848.

As the 21st century gets under way, American women can be found in every
profession. The 107th Congress has more women than ever before--61 in the
House and 13 in the Senate, including former first lady Hillary Rodham
Clinton. There are more female professors, doctors, lawyers, military
personnel, astronauts, scientists, and sports stars than ever before.
Still, the Equal Rights Amendment, passed by Congress in 1972, was defeated in
1983 after it failed to get ratification by a sufficient number of state
legislatures; and women continue to lag behind men in pay and promotions.

Chronology - Events of
February 2001

NATIONAL

The
Senate, Feb. 1, approved John Ashcroft as the next U.S.
attorney general.

A U.S.
appeals court ruled, Feb. 13, that Napster users were
infringing on copyrights and that an injunction against the song-swapping
service was "not only warranted but required."

Federal prosecutor Mary Jo White confirmed, Feb. 15,
that her office and the FBI had opened an investigation into President Bill
Clinton's last-minute pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich. Senate and House
committees launched similar probes of the Rich pardon, one of 176 pardons and
commutations granted by Clinton on Jan. 20, his final day in office.

Veteran FBI agent Robert Philip Hanssen was arrested Feb.
18 on charges of espionage; he was accused of being a double agent,
spying for Moscow for more than 15 years.

It was disclosed Feb. 21 that Hugh Rodham,
President Clinton's brother-in-law, received nearly $400,000 in fees to lobby
for presidential pardons of two felons, a cocaine trafficker and a businessman
convicted of mail fraud.

In a
nationally televised address from the House chamber, Feb. 27,
President George W. Bush sought to promote his legislative agenda, stressing a
proposed $1.6 trillion tax cut.

An
earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale jolted the Northwest, Feb.
28. Centered 35 miles southwest of Seattle, it was felt across
the region and into Canada. Damage was estimated to be in the
billions. There was a report of one fatality.

INTERNATIONAL

Ariel
Sharon, 72, won a landslide election victory, Feb. 6, to
become prime minister of Israel. Sharon, known as a hawk, and a member of the
newly reinvigorated Likud Party, defeated Labour Party Prime Minister Ehud
Barak by the largest margin in Israeli electoral history - 62.5 to 37.4
percent.

In a return to power after five years, Jean-Bertrand
Aristide was sworn in as president of Haiti, Feb. 7.

The USS Greeneville, a submarine on routine operations,
surfaced and hit a Japanese fishing vessel off the coast of Honolulu, Hawaii, Feb.
9. Twenty-six people were rescued; 9 others were missing and
presumed dead.

A powerful earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale
struck El Salvador, Feb. 13, killing nearly 300 people and
injuring 1,200 others. A month earlier, a 7.6-magnitude quake there killed more
than 1,200.

Eight people were killed and 20 wounded, Feb. 14,
when a Palestinian driving a bus plowed into a hitchhiking stop packed with
soldiers and civilians south of Tel Aviv.

Pope John Paul II bestowed the cardinal's red biretta on 44
priests, including 4 Americans, during a ceremony at the Vatican, Feb.
21, increasing the number of voting-age cardinals from 120 to 135.

At least 13 people died and many more were hurt, Feb.
28, when a British passenger train slammed into a crashed car before
being hit by a freight train speeding in the opposite direction, near the
Yorkshire village of Great Heck, about 160 miles north of London.

Steely Dan, a veteran rock group that had never won a
Grammy, took home four awards, including top honors at the Grammy Awards, Feb.
21, when it won Album of the Year for "Two Against Nature,"
the group's first album in 20 years. (A list of selected Grammy winners can be
found below.)

SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS

In Basel,
Switzerland, playing without Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras, the U.S. was
knocked out of the Davis Cup in the first round by Switzerland, 3-2, on Feb.
11. It was the first time the U.S. had been eliminated in the
first round since 1993. Defending champion Spain was also ousted in the first
round, by the Netherlands, 3-0, on Feb. 10.

On Feb. 13, Ch. Special Times Just Right, a
Bichon Frise, won Best in Show at the 125th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in
New York City.

Michael Waltrip earned the first victory of his 15-year
racing career at the Daytona 500 on Feb. 18. Waltrip's win was
overshadowed by the death of NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt, a 7-time Winston Cup
champion, whose car struck the wall nearly head-on during the final lap of the
race.

At the 75th Nissan Open, Feb. 25,
Australian Robert Allenby sank a 6-foot putt on the first extra hole to win
only the 2d six-man playoff in PGA history, and the first ever for a 72-hole
event.

Oscar Nominees for the
73rd annual Academy Awards to be held March 25:

The world's most infamous
shoe collector must have finally run out of closet space. Former Philippines
first lady Imelda Marcos, who reportedly left behind about 1,200 pairs of shoes
when she and her late husband ex-president Ferdinand Marcos fled the country in
disgrace in 1986, has opened a museum dedicated to - you guessed it -
footwear. Located in Manila, the Marikina City Footwear Museum has
hundreds of pairs of shoes donated by Imelda, as well as others shed by local
politicians and film stars. The former first lady, accused of extravagance for
her vast collection, has said that the real reason she bought so many shoes was
to help support the Marikina shoe industry.

Boxer Darrin Morris, 32, passed away in October 2000, from HIV-related
meningitis, but it didn't adversely affect his career. The World Boxing
Organization (WBO) had ranked him 7th in their super middleweight division at
the time of his death. Darrin moved up to 6th in December, and up again to 5th
in January 2001. The comment next to his name read "no recent
activity." His posthumous prosperity was finally halted in February, when
the WBO ratings committee finally became aware of Darrin's demise. Much to
the relief of James Butler, a living boxer who had trailed Morris for months,
the WBO finally dropped him with the notation, "Darrin Morris
(27-2-1)-USA-Dropped from the ranking due to inactivity."

Police in Danville, Kentucky, are still looking for a woman who paid for her
$2.12 order at a Dairy Queen drive-thru with a $200 bill. The novelty
"Moral Reserve Note" bears the likeness of President George W. Bush
and credits Ronald Reagan as political mentor and Bush's father as campaign
manager and mentor. On the back, the White House is shown with a gushing
oil derrick, and signs reading "We like broccoli" and "Rooms not
for rent" on the lawn. The idea that the bill in question might not be
legal tender apparently did not occur to the cashier until sometime after the
$197.88 in change had been disbursed and the motorist had driven away.

A new public art project OK'ed by the Milwaukee County Public Art Committee has
failed to impress a number of county supervisors, who are rolling up their
sleeves for a fight. The offending piece of art is New York artist Dennis
Oppenheim's sculpture "Blue Shirt," a 34-foot-high, 40-foot-wide,
translucent plastic blue shirt with a $220,000 price tag. Some
supervisors
are offended by what they see as the "blue-collar" implications of
the shirt, while others don't feel it represents Milwaukee. The two-story piece
will adorn a new parking structure scheduled to be completed in 2003 at General
Mitchell International Airport--if the art committee and the supervisors can
iron out their differences.

100 Years Ago in the
WORLD ALMANAC

Below is a record of
legislation attempts on the issue of Women's Suffrage in the year 1901:

In 1901 the New York
Legislature passed a law providing that "a woman who possesses the
qualifications to vote for village or town officers, except the qualification
of sex, who is the owner of property in the village assessed upon the last
preceding assessment roll thereof, is entitled to vote upon a proposition to
raise money by tax or assessment."

California, March 9. - A
bill permitting women to vote for the issuance of school bonds or levy of
school taxes was defeated by a vote in the House of 21 nays, 14 yeas.

New Mexico, February 24. -
The House voted 21 nays, 2 yeas on a women suffrage resolution.

Arizona, March 9. - A woman
suffrage bill was defeated in the House by a vote of 18 nays, 7 yeas.

South Dakota, February 14. -
A resolution to submit the question of woman suffrage to the people was shelved
in the Senate by a vote of 26 nays, 17 yeas.

Kansas, March 20. - A bill
giving the women the right to vote for Presidential electors was defeated by a
vote of 23 nays, 14 yeas.

Indiana - The House passed a
bill for an amendment giving women the suffrage, which was killed by the Senate
on the claim that "less than 10 per cent of the women care to exercise
it!"

Wisconsin, March 12. - A
bill for woman suffrage was killed in the Senate without debate.

Illinois, April 27 - The
House of Representatives killed the measure framed to extend woman suffrage to
township elections.

Connecticut, June 6. - A
bill for woman suffrage was rejected in concurrence with the Senate by a vote
of 119 nays, 53 yeas.

Massachusetts, March 15. -
The House defeated a proposition for woman suffrage by a vote of 156 nays, 53
yeas.

Notable Quotes: Life

"Never esteem anything
as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your
self-respect." - Marcus Aurelius
Antoninius, "Meditations"

"Good communication is
as stimulating as black coffee and just as hard to sleep
after." - Anne Morrow Lindbergh,
"Gift From the Sea"

"Life was meant to be
lived. Curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn
his back on life." - Eleanor
Roosevelt, "Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt"

"The excursion is the same
when you go looking for your sorrow as when you go looking for your
joy." - Eudora Welty, "The Wide
Net"

"The best portion of a
good man's life, his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of
love" - William Wordsworth, "Lines
Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey"

Links of the Month

When I was in school,
Spanish was referred to as one of the "romance" languages.
So you've made eye contact with that special someone on the subway everyday and
discover that he only speaks Spanish. What are you to do? By
visiting http://www.freetranslation.com
you will be able to type text in English and have it translated into
Spanish. And when he returns notes to you in Spanish, guess what, it can
translate them back.

You just returned from your
vacation in Egypt and all of your fellow travelers want to share their
pictures; however, you live throughout the United States. If you visit http://www.myfamily.com you will be able to
set up your own website where you can post news, e-mail and chat, share photos,
and for the genealogist in the family, build a family tree.

Whether you are a garage
sale junkie or collect World's Fair memorabilia, a new site called http://www.whaticollect.com will get you
in touch with other people who share your interests. You'll have the
ability to talk about what you collect, ask questions, purchase and sell your
holdings.

"Dormitory = Dirty
Room" and "Vacation Time = I'm not as active" are just two
examples of anagrams, which are words or phrases formed by reordering the
letters of another word of phrase. Visit http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram/ and
see what comes up for your name. Okay, all the phrases may not make
sense; for example, for Edward A. Thomas, the best of the lot was "A drama
we'd host."

Douglas Kiesling of
Minneapolis, MN, also known as "Lightning Boy," has been
photographing and videoing lightning for several years now. If you'd like
to see an impressive collection of pictures with this meteorological
phenomenon, visit http://www.lightningboy.com/ .

The 73rd Academy Award show
will be held in Los Angeles on March 25th. Visit http://www.oscar.com/oscars_home.html for
a complete listing of current nominees, plus a database of past nominees and
winners.